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Word MAC OFFICE 2021 creates random WRD temp files, even when Word doc is Saved

Anonymous
2023-12-11T17:33:05+00:00

I am using Word MAC OFFICE 2021, 16.77, MAC OS Big Sur 11.7.10 on iMac 2017 Retina 4K, 3.0 Ghz, 32 Gb RAM.

This has happened repeatedly to me since June 2023. I create and Save, often, a Word doc. For no reason, Word randomly turns the document into a WRD temp file. The only solution I have found is to Copy all text, Paste into a new Doc, and Title the New Doc differently. No matter how often I Save the original Doc, this keeps happening. It has happened 4 times today, within a 90 minute period. If you do Save As, and use the title of the original Doc, the New changes WILL NOT BE SAVED. You cannot overwrite the connection to this WRD Temp file. I was editing a doc and had Saved more than 20 times during the morning. When Word converted it to a WRD Temp doc, I tried the Save As operation I just described. I got a Message that I was saving features that might not be supported. I then found out that all the Edits I had done for 90 minutes WERE NOT SAVED into the New Doc. It reverted to the state I had begun with 90 minutes previously.

This is an unbelievable integrity Bug in Word.

I must also point out, that I found this exact same problem referenced in a Post by another User in Aug 2023. I tried replying on the Site; however, I don't think my response was ever Posted. The User I reference had posted the problem during 2021, and had pointed out that this was a problem with Word that went back many versions and had never been addressed. I have never encountered this type of problem, since starting to use Office for MAC in 1990.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | MacOS

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-11T18:56:27+00:00

    I don't believe you understand what I am referencing. While working within Word, the name of the document is being changed to a WRD Temp file. I am not talking about looking for the document in a Directory or Folder Window. I also know, from having searched for the WRD Temp file the first time this happened, to see if I could extract and Save the text, that this is impossible. These WRD Temp files are voluminous, and represent minute portions of the entire document. They are also full of garbage code, and you cannot identify any Text passages.

    This phenomena should not be happening while working within a document, especially since I have begun saving after every edit, even if it is only to one character. Documents which I have left unattended in Word, even though they have been Saved before I have gone to work on another document in a different application, have converted within Word to this WRD Temp file.

    Responding to your comment on the Warning About Saving Features: we are talking about Text passages only, not any Formatting, no tables, graphics, etc. A Word document I had worked on had been saved repeatedly. I made the mistake of Copying and Pasting all the Text into a brand New doc, but I saved the doc with the same name as the original doc's file name before the WRD Temp conversion problem. The Save As doc did not overwrite the original Doc. The result Reverted to a state before any of my Edits were Saved. I just spent 2 hours reconstructing those edits.

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  2. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-12-11T17:59:20+00:00

    Hi

    Ordinarily, you should not be seeing these temporary files, as they are kept in hidden file locations. However, if you open a Word document on a network drive or some other non-standard location, you may be able to see these files.

    If you're seeing them on files that you have open and those files are located on your Mac, your file system may need to be fixed. Use Disk Utility to verify your startup volume to correct the problem:

    How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

    File names starting with ~ are files Microsoft Word uses to keep track of things in your document as you work on it. In normal operation, when you close a document, Word deletes the temporary files. These files are NOT your document. Messing with these temporary files in any way while the document is open could result in unrecoverable corruption of your document.

    There's an online article about Word's temporary files. It describes how Word for Windows makes and saves these files. The article applies to Word for Mac as well, but the file locations are different on Mac than on Windows:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/description-of-how-word-creates-temporary-files-66b112fb-d2c0-8f40-a0be-70a367cc4c85

    The warning about saving features that might not be supported tells you that there is specific content in your document that is not compatible with the file format you have chosen in the Format pop-up menu of the Save As dialog box. Either you have content that is too new to be saved in an old file format, or vice-versa you have content that is too old to work in a current file format. For example, you might have a graph that was generated by Microsoft Graph which no longer exists. Or maybe you have an svg graphic in your file and you're trying to save in the old .doc file format.

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  3. Jim G 134K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2023-12-12T20:17:30+00:00

    Hi

    What location is the Word document stored when it is opened? Your Mac? A flash drive? iCloud? Where? Your Mac OS Documents folder? Your Mac OS Desktop?

    What version of Word are you using? Use the Menu Bar and choose Microsoft Word > About Microsoft Word to display that info.

    What version of Mac OS are you using?

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-12T07:20:03+00:00

    I ran Disk Utility in Recovery Mode. No problems were detected.

    I read the Article you linked and used Terminal to open the Temp Directory; however the Temp Files folder was empty, probably because I had closed all the WRD Temp files after Copying and Pasting text into New Docs and Saving those docs. Also, I have Restarted twice to do Recovery Mode, Disk First Aid, and Restart in normal mode.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-12-11T19:06:50+00:00

    I will try to run Disk First Aid on my Internal HD to see if there are any problems; however, in Aug 2023, after these WRD Temp files starting menacing my work, I had done an upgrade of MAC OS Catalina to MAC OS Big Sur. I did this by successfully and correctly doing a complete Clean Install, erasing the the Internal HD, installing Big Sur from a USB drive, and writing the Data back from a Time Machine Back Up. I don't see how the integrity of the Internal HD would be compromised since Aug.

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